The present application relates generally to an improved data processing apparatus and method and more specifically to mechanisms for generating important values from a variety of server log files.
A server is both a running instance of some software that is capable of accepting requests from client computing devices and a computing device that executes such software. Servers operate within a client-server architecture, in which the servers execute computer programs to serve the requests of client programs on client computing devices. The service provided by such servers may be to share data, information, or hardware as well as software resources. Typical computing servers are, for example, database servers, file servers, mail servers, print servers, web servers, gaming servers, and application servers. While client programs may execute on the server, client programs typically connect to the server through a network.
In executing computer programs on the server as well as interacting with client programs through a network, servers generate one or more server logs comprising a list of each activity the server performs when interacting with data stored on the server. Thus, in a business with many servers, there may be tons and tons of log files. While these log files may seem to be just data that tracks the actions/interactions of the server, for an Information technology (IT) person, these log files provide insight as to how the server is operating, what data is being provided, whether the server is being under-tasked or over-tasked, or the like. One way to gather such insight into the log files of a server is through content analytics. In its simplest form, log content analytics is the science of making sense of computer-generated records. However, content analytics is much more expansive. That is, log content analytics is the application of analytics and semantic technologies to (semi-) automatically consume and analyze heterogeneous computer-generated log files to discover and extract relevant insights into a rationalized, structured form that enables a wide-range of business activities.